A very sloppy sea received us on the first 36 hours of sailing. What happened to nice rolling Atlantic Ocean? The wind conditions were ideal though. Who knows what the seas would bring had the wind been more ta the average 22kts? Again our crew were tops!
And after a few days in Gran Canaria, driving around the island, visiting various beaches, and eating pleasant meals at Sailors Bar, we hugged and said good bye to Hilda and Gary. Where did the month go? Every day, every moment was fun, easy and happy. Thanks guys!
James leaves to NZ as well, and I have a week with my sister Sonia in london

A perfect 3nm sail took us to the eastern marina of Madeira. We were informed that there was a regatta in Madeira and the main marina would be full so we chose Quinta Do Lorde, and it tuned out to be a great choice. Stunning setting, with a classic walk 2 kms from the Marina/resort. We hired a car, and had a couple of days to explore the island. One more day would have been optimal, but our days were running out and we had a 2 days and nights of sailing to get to Las Palmas Gran Canaries

Gary and Hilda did an amazing job on there first 3 night sail. It was not the best conditions, quite sloppy seas for the first 36 hours. Garry was determined to catch a fish, but the best he could do was a big piece of fishing rope!
We very much enjoyed our short stop at Isla de Santos, taking a guided 4x drive around the island. Excellent roads!
Good anchorage and Good provisioning in the main town..

Gary and Hilda's first overnight sail. It was perfect, with a full moon and calm seas.
We arrived to the beautiful and safe anchorage of Cascais, and after a few nights at anchor we went to the marina to give us flexibility to train it to Lisbon, and explore the city. Cascais and Lisbon are still one of our favourite cities, with its polished white cobbled pavers, blue tiled old buildings and very friendly people. Simple but good food, nice markets, and lots to do and see.

We loved the marina in Porto up the duro river. It was on the right side and in a small fishing village with some very good authentic barbqued sardines and seafood street restaurants. A pleasant 3 km walk along the river, takes you to the region where all the port distilleries are and the famous bridge, created by the same architect of the Eiffel Tower.
The hop on hop off bus was not really worth it, but it did take us to the Contemporary museum and casa Serralves,which is always worth doing.
Our travel down the coastline was a pleasant surprise, with lots of Sandy beaches and holiday villages with apartments and houses. Summer is in full swing. Yet the Atlantic water is still very cold! Barely 15*!

We left for Porto, with a scheduled anchorage at Cabadelo. Sun was shining, but within half an hour, we were in a thick blanket of fog. We could barely see 50 Mts ahead of us. So all eyes glued to the horizon looking out for fishing pots, of which there were many. It was an eerie feeling. The seas were completely flat, with a slight roll. I expected this to lift but even as we pulled into the anchorage, we were totally relying on our charts, and at 9mts of depth we dropped anchor. We heard the sound of waves in the distance, but that was it!! Next morning we still could barely make out the coast, which was very close!!

On our way to Baiona, we anchored off Islas Cies, a bird sanctuary, and had a great walk up to the light house. Lots of day trippers!
An evening in Baiona, wandering around the old streets, and searching our old taverna. Sadly it had changed hands, and the old charm of the taverna was lost. But Gary was determined to find us some grilled sardines, and he steered us to some beauties!

We checked into the yacht club of Vigo which is right at the heart of the old town. Hilda and Garry arrived by train from Santiago De Compostelo late in the afternoon. We had a couple of days walking around, enjoying the city and some delicous food. It is great to have them on board, many fun days await!

Again a pleasant sail down, with jib and wind from behind.
Lots of busy beaches, incredible inland water way, beautiful rock formations that reminded a lot of Corsica, with islands protecting the waters creating a great place to enjoy sailing from one beach or village/town to another. Managed to anchor just outside the Combarro marina, which we had visited 9 years ago, when they had just opened. We took the dinghy up the river to Pontevedre, and chose not to go ashore for a visit, opting to stay with the plan to pick Hilda and Garry from Vigo. Our next guests! Great friends from home.

Lovely sail down to Muros with just the Jib, swell and wind from behind, enjoying the rounded rocky shoreline, dotted with beaches, and presumably holiday homes, lots of them, and apartments.
Great anchorage, and a lovely town. Nice walk to the neighbouring beach.
Justin and Nelly leave us from here, busing back to Santiago de Campostello.

Calm seas, a bit of Atlantic swell, we motored down to Camarenas. Sea temperature is barely 18 degrees. And air temperature 23. We thought it would be a lot higher for August!
A small sleepy fishing town, good anchorage. Another recommendation of Sams.

We arrived in A Coruna after 3 nights and days of sailing, and a bit of motor sailing. Skipper James timed it perfectly, and although there were moments of choppy disturbed seas, we had a good passage. Nelly, Justin’s girlfriend suffered a bit of seasickness and spent most of the trip horizontally!
Great to be back in A Coruna. Had an amazing feed of Octopus from a local recommendation. Summer crowds are present everywhere!

Sam recommended we stay here, and he Kindly called ahead to his mate, to assure that we would have a spot. What a great friendly marina. And also a very nice sea side town, with quite a lot of affluent grand homes. Nice walks along the sea front, with little swimming spots amongst the rocks. Not that I can imagine wanting to swim, as the water was barely 16 degrees, in the hight of summer!!! Apparently most people swim in wet suits.
Justin and his new girl friend Nelly join us in the late evening, and early morning James and I cast off for our journey to Spain, as there was a bit of a blow that we wanted to get ahead of.
Calm seas through the Irish seas, hard to believe, but nice flat seas!!

We motored all the way, with an aim to get through the pass into the loch before the tide turned. What a beautiful surprise. Nice looking properties on either side, with green well wooded areas.
Sam,is a solo Irish sailor we met 7 years ago in Papetee, whilst we were both anti fouling our boats. James's goal was to visit him on his home turf, hence this trip North. (Where the summer sea temperatures never get above 14.5!!
During our short 3 day visit, Sam was a perfect and very enthusiastic host, driving us around, through beautiful country roads, all the way up to Giants Causway, which was swarming with thousands of tourist, to Belfast, to local pubs, to an evening of Irish folk music, and of course fine samplings of Guinness and Irish whisky!

We headed on our journey North, after getting our engines serviced, A bit of a blow of a blow had come through, so the seas were considerably sloppy and rough. Very much like the Med. Steap and sharp, 5-6 sec. and 3-5 Mts! Especially around South Rock! combined with strong currents, it was quite impressive.
Our first night sailing up the Eastern coast, we spent just beyond Rosslare. It was dark when we arrived and dusk when we left, so could not comment on what we saw.
The next day we headed off early in the morning. We had full intention, after a great day of sailing with wind and waves from back quarter, of spending the night at the anchorage of Dundalk Bay, but as we approached we snagged a lobster pot on Dunanay Shoals, which brought us to an immediate halt! 20:30 and the day is ending, a typical scenario. We anchor and James jumps into the freezing water, 14.4 degrees, to assess the situation, but we were bouncing around, the water was murky, and it was impossible to sea anything, besides the shock of cold. So we decided, upon Sam's recommendation to call the life guard. 45mins later, a group of 6 young men, all volunteers, came to our rescue! They looped KIWA with a sunken rope, and brought up the culpable line, cut it, and we were free!. They than towed us into port Oreal, a small fishing port, as we were unsure if any damage had been done to prop and anchor. We arrived at 1:30 in the morning with locals curiously gathered on the dock, cameras in hand.
The next morning, James jumped in, among the lazy big sea lions, and much to his delight, found prop and rudder unscathed. The sea lions carried on their business, waiting to be fed the scraps from the previous days catch, and we motored on up to the mouth of Strangford Loch, eager to get the tides right.

A soft start of the late afternoon and into the evening, just as Predict Wind had indicated. Bu morning the winds had picked up a bit, along with a steady rain, all the way until a few miles from coast. Apparently Cork itself had not had rain for over 50 days!
Cork harbour shaped like a rams head, is steeped in history, due to its large secure basin. Our marina is in Crosshaven a sleepy coastal town, ½ bus ride from the city of Cork. We stayed here a week, waiting for friendly Kiwi Caleb to service our engines, and a bit of stormy weather up the Irish Seas.
Enjoyed our time travelling to Cork, doing a bit of shopping, and in Crosshaven, delighting in some delicious meals at the Cronin’s Pub. And to the delight of the locals, it finally did rain, day after day! It did give KIWA a nice wash…

A good shower first thing in the morning, a welcome wash for KIWA, gave us an excuse to have a later start. We sailed close to the shore, and pushed off from Lands end. The swell developed 1-3mts. But KIWA handled it very well, happy to see. Blue skies, and 3 pods of dolphins.
We found a nice protected anchorage opposite Hugh Town next to Bryher Island.
We decide to stay on board, so its cooked greens and Puy lentils. Dinners are getting very basic, but delicious non the less!!
Next morning a short dingy ride to Tresco where we toured the gardens and saw lots of very mature pohutakawa trees and lots of rata and other NZ natives. James was quite impressed. A very good supermarket on the other  side. Its a nice island, no cars.
That afternoon we decided to head for Cork, as the winds were in our favour, so by 17:00 we were heading out to sea for the 140nm journey

What a great sail. The seas were flat and calm, the wind barely 7kts, and yet we were cruising along at Av. 6kts. Right to the harbour entrance. The sun was shinning. Temp. 26
Nice marina, friendly. We were lucky to get in, JJ squeezed himself in brilliantly. We were hoping to get the engines serviced her, but they are not able to do it this week.
Sonia and Patrick arrived on Monday afternoon, and on our way by dingy to Falmouth, to have dinner at Rick Stein's restaurant, we had a ceremonial throwing of the ashes overboard, with of course a shot of vodka, in honour of my mum. It was quite comical, as we saw the ashes taken back to land, rather than out to sea! As though mum was not ready to depart, knowing we were to have a birthday celebration the following day!
The next day after a nice walk along the coast we checked into the Driftwood Hotel, a small hotel hugging the coast. After a little champaign toast in our room, we enjoyed an amazing 3 course meal, in the 1 Michelin Star restaurant. The whole few days were absolutely perfect!

We left at 3:00 am, after a sleepless night. I was not looking forward to this departure, and what awaited us as we went around the head land. But JJ in true Kiwi fashion, was not fazed at all, and followed his track in before veering right. It was a little rough at first but than the sea settled. Unfortunately the winds never materialised and we motored all the way!!
Gill sadly left us the next day, and we began our little day adventure with the dingy up the Tamar river to Calstock. It was quite an adventure for as we headed up river, we had no idea how low it would get, as the tide went out, and sure enough, we had to grab on to a little mooring bouy, and wait an hour until the tide changed and we were able to continue up river to Calstock.
James’s ancestors left for New Zealand in 1841 from this village. It was a goal of James for many years, to go up the river and find the village, and visit the church and its cementary. Immediately he found a grave stone of an another ancestor, buried in 1807.

We motored around the Pointe du Rag. You could feel and see the different currents. But the weather and currents were in our favour. Great admiration to see sailors in small boats out there with the sails up! Not much sailing up to Ouesant. Arrived into the nice safe, and protected inlet. Took the dingy ashore, and had a little wonder. Our meal at the hotel was excellent!
The tide changes were really showing there true nature. As our dingy was on the ground when we came out from dinner! Fortunately we managed to get her off no problem! Good moorings.